When Keith Doucet initially elected to have his Y DNA tested with Family Tree DNA as a member of the Amerindian Ancestry out of Acadia Project in the summer of 2008, he was interested in comparing his results with others that had been published for the Doucet surname. A Y-DNA surname study is a great way to locate family members and Keith was looking to do the same, along with discovering new information about his own paternal-line ancestry.

After completing his test, Keith Doucet returned his kit to Family Tree DNA and awaited a result that he was certain would compare closely to the others that had been published, which were, without exception, showing expected Western

European origins. He had researched his family lines carefully, following a paper trail that traced his genealogy from the heart of Cajun Country, Louisiana, to an early Acadian settlement in 17th-century Port Royal, Nova Scotia. Keith's Doucet surname features strongly not only in the Cajun family lines of Louisiana, but in the history of Nova Scotia – and the Doucet name can be found on the street names, mailboxes, business names, and names of towns throughout present-day Nova Scotia.

However, the results Keith received in early February of 2009 did not match his expectations – nor did they match the Doucet/Doucette Y DNA test results published in other surname studies. Instead, his results were shown to be of the “C3” Y DNA haplogroup, following a refinement by Family Tree DNA of his initial haplogroup “C” finding. Keith was now in a quandary. His genealogy had been verified several times over in the records; his immediate family included generations of living Doucets, who testified to his parentage. Grave markers, marriage and baptismal records, and meticulously maintained family genealogies added up to a Doucet lineage that neither he, nor his family, questioned. During the year that followed, Keith researched his DNA test results, noting the C3b haplogroup matches that appeared in his Family Tree DNA project profile described a Native American ancestry. He read the published research regarding the wide-ranging C3 haplogroup and the various subtypes that would distinguish his paternal origins. He joined the C/C3 Family Tree DNA haplogroup study and compared his results with others that had been compiled – going as far as to posit that his haplogroup may have been of a Mongolian origin, an idea that he put aside when he was not able to match his results with Genghis Khan's. Questions poured in from project members, genealogists, and family relations alike. Was he sure that he was a Doucet? Was his C haplogroup a valid type? Did he really suspect that his ancestor's surname, Doucet, could have been held by a Native American? To all questions, Keith answered, “yes,” standing behind his results, his documented lineage and his historic family name – a name that his father had passed to him along with his deep-rooted Cajun ancestry.

As stated earlier, Keith had observed that the C3b result, which pointed to a confirmed Native American heritage, appeared in his list of matches. In January of 2010, the Amerindian Ancestry out of Acadia Family Tree DNA project sponsored the additional Family Tree DNA deep subclade tests for Keith and two other project members, whose C3 Y DNA test results, and matches, indicated a Native American heritage. At the same time that Keith Doucet pursued his quest, other project members were seeking the same information about their own surprising C3 results, and when Keith's subclade tests results arrived in February of 2010, his were the second in the project to resolve to this same, published C3b (P39) subclade. And so, his heritage tested, Keith is now assured of his Native American ancestry through his father's paternal family line and has engaged other direct family members in testing as well.*

Keith Doucet publishes the following paternal line information and invites Doucets whose paternal line ancestries compare to his to have their Y DNA tested:

Keith Doucet and Amerindian Ancestry out of Acadia DNA Project, are looking for male descendants of Germain Doucet b.1641, to participate in a yDNA project.

Since Keith Doucet first announced his unexpected and controversial C3b Native American DNA finding in an article published in 2010, the results of his testing with the Amerindian Ancestry out of Acadia Family Tree DNA Project, there have been five Doucet descendants of Germain (ca 1641) who have already tested C3b, Native American, with other results pending. Seven others, descendants of Germain and his brother Pierre, are known to have tested R1b European, with a variety of genetic sequences represented in published results.

The project needs more candidate descendants of Germain Doucet to set a precedent and prove without a doubt, the possible Native ancestry of one of Germain Doucet's children. We are limiting the offer to Germain Doucet b. 1641 at this time; the project scope does not include other Doucet surname lineages.

Would you like to contribute and participate in this great project ? Send your completed paternal genealogy line leading up to Germain Doucet b. 1641, together with an email and mailing address where you can be reached, to the attention of Amerindian Ancestry out of Acadia Project Administrator, Marie Rundquist at mrundqui@shentel.net. Want to know more about DNA testing, please visit the Amerindian Ancestry out of Acadia DNA Project; and to find out more about Keith's journey and his DNA results, visit his web page at http://familyheritageresearchcommunity.org/doucet_dna.html

**Update 04/22/2012: Thanks to a great response, the specific Y Chromosome DNA project objectives outlined in the notice for Descendants of Germain Doucet b. 1641 have been met, and so the offer of full sponsorship is closed with results pending. **Update 07/08/2012: All candidate test kits included in the Germain Doucet b. 1641 Y chromosome DNA study, for participants living in the United States and Canada, have returned a C3b (Native American) haplogroup result, following deep subclade analysis, and match Keith Doucet's Y DNA results.Click to view Y DNA results.